Nearly two years after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Oct. 7 commemoration St. Louis will echo in High Holy Day pulpits. Local rabbis are preparing sermons that grapple with its aftermath — some speaking directly about Israel and antisemitism, others offering quieter messages of comfort, reflection and resilience. However varied their approaches, each rabbi is searching for ways to offer hope and unity at a moment that feels deeply personal and profoundly challenging for the Jewish community.

Oct. 7 commemoration St. Louis rabbis balance politics and prayer

Rabbi Elizabeth Hersh at Temple Emanuel said her congregation is “not political” when it comes to American or Israeli politics. She emphasized how a sermon can be construed in different ways and stressed the importance of her being able to connect with all congregants across a wide spectrum of beliefs. 

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“People hear what they want to hear from a sermon,” Hersh said.

Even though Hersh will not be delivering a sermon about Israel during the High Holidays, she will be referring to the shards of glass in front of the Ark that she and TE Executive Director Andrew Goldfeder smashed after Oct. 7.

“Like the story of when Moses broke the first set of tablets, the Israelites carried those broken tablets with them wherever they went,” Hersh said. “We’re keeping these shards with us as a reminder of Oct. 7 and the brokenness that we feel as Jewish people in the world.” 

Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham at Congregation B’nai Amoona is adding prayers related to Oct. 7 to services on the first day of Sukkot, which falls on the anniversary of the attack. 

Abraham said that he will add a section to the Yizkor service on Yom Kippur and that Israel will “definitely” be a part of his Rosh Hashanah sermon.

Young Israel Rabbi Dov Fink will also address the Israel-Hamas war on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. He said the significance of the High Holidays is weighing on his congregants in ways that they had not before Oct. 7. 

“We’ve been forced against our will to come to confront our Jewish identities in ways that we were not forced to confront before,” he said.

Rabbi James Bennett said that after Oct. 7, Congregation Shaare Emeth started including a prayer for the safe return of the hostages and prayers for peace in its weekly Shabbat worship. He said High Holy Day services will include prayers centering on the importance of the hostages’ return and an end to the conflict. 

“We will use our voices and our prayers to seek a just and permanent end to the conflict that acknowledges the right of all people to self-determination and peace, free from fear of terrorism,” he said.

Bennett also said that the length of the conflict in Israel, news coverage and perception among Jews and non-Jews are all weighing heavily on congregation members, causing some to reconsider their views.

“While most members of our congregation likely believe the war Israel launched in response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks was a just war, and support the goal of defeating Hamas, many now question the wisdom and intention of the government of Israel in choosing to continue to wage this war in the manner they are doing so,” Bennett said. 

A ‘purple congregation’ resists polarization

Rabbi Amy Feder described Temple Israel as a “purple congregation,” noting that she and Rabbi Michael Alper avoid preaching directly on political topics because of the community’s diverse viewpoints. Instead, they focus on offering a Jewish perspective, a choice Feder believes has strengthened the congregation.

“Those who wanted us to say, ‘Vote for this guy,’ if they were upset about it, they’re not here anymore,” Feder said.

“But I think actually quite the converse has happened. We’ve had people who have come here specifically (and) said, ‘I’m coming here for inspiration, for comfort and for wisdom, not for the news.’ ”

After Oct. 7, Temple Israel draped a tallit over a chair to honor the hostages, a memorial that will remain during the High Holidays. In addition, Feder said, Alper probably will speak about Israel during one of the Yom Kippur sermons. 

“Rosh Hashanah, we usually try to make a little lighter and a little more inspirational,” Feder said. “Yom Kippur tends to be the [sermons] that really hit home and that we expect people are going to have to really sit with.” 

Feder said that just as she doesn’t agree with every decision made by the American government, she also doesn’t agree with every action of the Israeli government. From her perspective, it isn’t her place to judge events in Israel while she remains comfortable in Missouri. Instead, she prefers to amplify the voices of Israelis who are experiencing the conflict firsthand.

Rabbi Daniel Bogard of Central Reform Congregation plans to lead a Yom Kippur breakout session on, “How we talk about Israel.” 

Bogard said that because he is offering that session and because he devoted a sermon to Israel last year, he is less likely to focus on the topic in his High Holy Day sermons this year. Still, he expects it will surface in smaller teachings he shares throughout the season.

“What I’m trying to [do] with the Yom Kippur session is to give people space to speak out loud the things they feel they’re not allowed to say, and to give people permission and encouragement to lean into difference, and to lean into curiosity and … pluralism,” Bogard said. 

A commitment to pluralism is central to CRC, and Bogard works to cultivate a space where members with drastically different views of Israel can feel comfortable praying together. He said the synagogue’s values are less closely tied to political positions and related more to respecting others’ opinions. 

“Our boundaries aren’t around what you believe about Zionism, our boundaries are around how you treat the people you are with and in community with,” he said.

Bogard said the defining feature of Jewish identity today is “the existence of a Jewish sovereign state,” a conversation in which Bogard believes Jews must participate. He hopes people will commit to “curiosity over correctness,” and is focused on how people talk about Israel. 

“We have to stop using antisemitism or criticism of Israel as bludgeons against each other, which far too many rabbis, including rabbis here in St. Louis, have done and continue to do,” Bogard said.

Last month, an op-ed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch written by four local rabbis cited a profile of Bogard in the newspaper and said it offered an “incomplete and misleading” perspective of American Jews’ relationship with Israel. 

Antisemitism is inescapable in this year’s sermons

Since Oct. 7, 2023, incidents of antisemitism have increased substantially, and while some might see antisemitism and anti-Zionism as inextricably linked to each other, Bogard believes the opposite is true. 

“We live at a moment when antisemitism and anti-Zionism have become divorced from each other,” Bogard said. “Some of the most pro-Israel voices are people who have incredibly distorted antisemitic world views and perspectives.”

Bogard said President Donald Trump exemplifies how one person can be both antisemitic and pro-Israel, subverting the narrative that to believe in one automatically means believing in the other.

“Donald Trump is the most antisemitic president in modern American history,” Bogard said. “And yet, because he’s seen as being pro-Israel, you have huge swaths of [the Jewish] community that give him a pass and want to only focus on left-wing antisemitism.”

Bennett of Shaare Emeth said misinformation about Israel and Zionism, along with the spread of anti-Zionist rhetoric, feels like “blatant antisemitism to many.” He clarifies to congregants that the criticism of Israel they read about online and see in the news is not necessarily all antisemitic. 

“One of the things I try to do is help people to differentiate between fear and discomfort, and to clarify that I believe that not all criticism of Israel is necessarily antisemitic,” he said.

Feder of Temple Israel also said that antisemitism is on her congregants’ minds. She said that every year, she or Alper gives a sermon on the topic during the High Holidays — and the synagogue adds more security to their building. 

“Each year, it seems like we add on new things to make sure if someone is walking in this building, we know exactly who they are and where they are going,” she said.

This year, Temple Israel added a second off-duty police officer to support its preschool, supplementing the officer who already lives in an apartment on the property. But Feder said the congregation remains acutely aware of the potential threat of antisemitic incidents.

“I feel like literally everything we do, there’s always this sense of, who are you looking out for, who could be a threat,” she said. 

At B’nai Amoona, Abraham’s congregants want guidance on how to approach antisemitism, especially given recent violent events in Clayton, Boulder, Colo. and Washington, D.C.

“That’s the goal any time I speak, to relate it to people’s lives,” Abraham said. “I had a professor in my first year of college who told us on the first day of school that it’s a Torah world and everything that happens in the Torah you can relate to something in people’s lives. I live my life that way as a rabbi.”